The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
SNAP Press Release
Ousted predator priest is now a lawyer in Colorado
Clergy sex abuse victims just found out
They want bishops to warn others about him
He’s been sued for molesting a boy yet walks free
Self help group pleads with bishops: “Speak up and protect others”
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conferences, clergy sex abuse victims will
-- disclose that a predator priest is now a politically active attorney, and
-- announce that they’re filing a complaint against him with the Bar Association.
They will also
-- urge Catholic officials – here and elsewhere - to warn families about him,
-- prod two bishops to reach out to others who were molested by the priest, and
-- urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes to get help and call the police.
WHEN
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 1:30 p.m.
WHERE
Outside the Colorado Bar Association HQ, 1900 Grant Street (corner of E. 19th Ave.) in Denver
WHY
In the 1990s, according to the Kansas City Star, Fr. Michael E. Brewer was sent to “an unnamed treatment center, after several families at a KC parish accused him of improperly touching their boys.” The priest was previously “accused of caressing a boy's buttocks” two years earlier. But the KC diocese vicar general, Fr. Norman Rotert (816 550 4357 cell), admitted that "we would have been better off to have sent him to a national center for evaluation" sooner.
(http://hem.passagen.se/kristnabrott/over2.htm)
Now, two concerned Catholics have alerted SNAP to the fact that Brewer is a lawyer in Colorado. Internet searches give Brewer’s business address as 1123 Spruce Street in Boulder (303 367 5475) and WhitePages.com suggests (though SNAP is not certain) that he’s the director of the Brett Family Foundation (303 442 1200), a non-profit that helps “disadvantaged youth” and “underserved communities” according to its website.
In the 1990s, Brewer was sued by a Kansas City man (Michael Gibson) and his parents (Narron and Marianne Gibson) for allegedly sexually abusing Michael when he was a teenager in 1990. The suit charged that after “watching movies in the rectory, and in the early morning hours while Michael slept, Father Brewer touched and fondled (him) in a "sexual, offensive and unwelcome manner." Brewer has maintained his innocence.
In 1997, the Missouri Supreme Court tossed out the lawsuit because of the statute of limitations.
Then-Jackson County MO prosecutor Claire McCaskill criticized the diocese for refusing to provide names of parishioners who had accused Brewer.
SNAP is urging KC and Denver Catholic officials to “warn unsuspecting families about him and reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered any crimes or misdeeds” by Brewer. And SNAP is writing the Bar Association urging an investigation into whether or not Brewer lied or misled them on his application to become an attorney.
In a number of cases across the country, bishops have made deals with predator priests to pay for their education in other fields if the priest will quietly move elsewhere. SNAP is asking Kansas City’s bishop to disclose whether he or his predecessors had such an arrangement with Brewer.
Brewer apparently lived in Silver Spring MD, the home of the Catholic church’s primary treatment facility for predator priests. Brewer was ordained in 1986, is around 50 years old, and reportedly still has family in the KC area.
Brewer’s alleged crimes happened at St. Elizabeth parish in KC, where KC’s most notorious predator priests (Msgrs. Thomas O'Brien & Thomas Reardon) also worked. Brewer also worked in Blue Springs MO.
Attorneys: James R. Wyrsch (816-221-0080) and Michael P. Joyce (816-421-0644) represented Brewer. Sylvester James, Jr. (816-472-6800), Nancy E. Kenner (816-931-1400) and Brian C. Fries (816-460-5326) represented the Gibsons. James P. Tierney (816-460-5835), William J. Stapleton and Brian J. Madden (816-701-1100) represented Brewer’s employer, the Kansas City MO diocese (816-756 2685).
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/1997_08_20_Lambe_DecisionRestricts_Thomas_Ward_4.htm
(NOTE: SNAP believes, and research shows, the overwhelming majority of those who prey on youngsters are heterosexual. There is no link, SNAP believes, between sexual orientation and sexual abuse. Also, half of SNAP’s members are women who were molested as girls by clerics.)
CONTACT
David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s national director 314 566 9790,
Jeb Barrett of Denver, SNAP Denver director 720 222 2412, [email protected]
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org